My husband and I have a two year old son, Henry, and are expecting another boy April 30th. We recently purchased a four bedroom house, with two rooms on the main floor and two rooms upstairs. While the boys are young, we've decided to keep them both on the main floor with us. The only problem is.....their room is TINY and has no closet! This will only be their room for a couple of years and I'm determined to make it work.

Henry will be moving to a classic white (wooden) toddler bed and the baby will have the crib, which we will paint white. They will be sharing an IKEA Malm dresser already in the room.

We are looking for design inspiration that is appropriate for both a baby and a toddler which maximizes the space. I love gray walls but would be willing to keep the current color. I'd also love to see some orange or mustard accents. I definitely like modern over cutesy.

Thanks - Annali

I know all about being short on space (and not having a closet!) Here's what I came up with:

Recently, Misha wrote to me about a nursery idea board for her daughter:

Hi Lauren,

I need ideas for my daughter's nursery. I'm just not good at putting this together! I don't want a too-girly room, but I do want a cute nursery. The space is rather small and the walls are cream at the moment. I'm fearful of too many fabrics in a small space. We are using all Amy Butler fabrics for the custom crib bedding and curtains. Our crib is the Ragazzi Classico Collection Stages Crib. I'm looking for accessories, a rug, etc.

Thanks!
Misha

Misha's awesome fabric choices gave me a great jumping-off point for the room. Here's what I came up with:

Since Misha was worried about too many patterns and colors overwhelming the small space, I went with neutral soothing colors and textures with a few pops of green. Thanks for letting me help with your space, Misha!

So here I am at 34 weeks and 2 days pregnant. Less than six weeks until I get to see my baby girl!

I've heard so many people say that they absolutely loved being pregnant and miss it. I must say that I can't join them in this feeling, as much as I might like to. Here are a few of my complaints confessions (don't worry, there are pretty pictures):

I cannot get comfortable. If I sit, my butt hurts, if I stand, my feet hurt. When I lay down, it's like I have a bowling ball inside of me.

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Sock monkies creep me out. For some reason I feel like I should like them, but I have yet to find a non-creepy one.

I have a lot of horrible thoughts lately. I'm sure I can credit them to the hormones raging throughout my body, the tiredness, and the discomfort, and I try not to act on them. You'd think pregnancy would make you have loving, motherly thoughts but certainly not for me.

I definitely take up three-fourths (or more) of our queen-sized bed. Three or four pillows to prop me up, a body pillow, and a pillow or two between my legs is all I need for a semi-comfortable night of sleep. Although sometimes those don't even help.

On the flip side, I know that at the other end of this pregnancy is a beautiful baby of my very own and I would do it all over again without question. And I know that I shouldn't even been complaining. I've had a very smooth and uneventful pregnancy so far - there are so many women who have it so much worse than me. But I don't know if I could live in a world where you can't complain now and again on your own blog ;) So thanks for bearing with me and I hope at the very least you enjoyed the pretty pictures!

What is/was your biggest pregnancy complaint?

I'd love to hear them - it'd make me feel a little better about doing all of that whining ;)

There are so many amazing products available for children now, thanks to etsy and some very design-minded stores and boutiques. Here are a few of my favorite places to shop for artwork for your child's nursery, bedroom, or play space:

After yesterday's post, I thought I'd include one to see where the living room began. When we moved into the H-Haus, the wall that currently houses the framed art and sofa looked like this:

And trust me that this photo does not do it justice. The carpet was stained and torn up, the walls were dingy and looked like they hadn't been painted in 50 years. We closed up the closet and regained that space in an adjoining room, ripped out the built-in under the window, and replaced the radiator.

The carpet had to go, and although there were hardwoods beneath, they were so damaged that we ended up just putting in new wood flooring from Lumber Liquidators - Brazilian Walnut. Not to mention the awesome drop ceiling:

Notice that there was nothing wrong with the ceiling above, we think they just wanted a ceiling light? Seemed like a bad trade-off to us, so we ripped it out! Here's what it looks like now:

It's so nice to have high ceiling and space for a big comfy sectional!